"I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim..."

We just recorded an episode of Bitchstory in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, and one of the badass ladies we discussed was Frida Kahlo.  Most people have heard of her, or are fans of her very expressive artwork from the early 20th century.  Many people would recognize her by her famous eyebrows, which have become a symbol of feminism in and of themselves.  Frida rejected accepted beauty standards for women, and her eyebrows were like a middle finger to the patriarchy.   But like all famous people, there was much more to her than her art or her eyebrows. 

Frida had Polio as a child, and was left with lingering issues from that. Then when she was 18, a bus she

was riding collided with an electric trolley car.  A steel handrail impaled her (yes, impaled), going in one hip, and coming out the other side of her body.  It punctured her uterus and her stomach.  Frankly it is a mighty miracle they saved her life. Moreover, they saved her uterus.  However, she did suffer a number of miscarriages during her marriage to Diego Rivera, probably due to scar tissue and such (though I'm no doctor, it just makes sense.) In fact, she documented three therapeutic abortions during those times when she tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant.  A "therapeutic abortion" is one that removes a non viable pregnancy or ends a pregnancy that endangers the mother's life. I think it's important to spell that out seeing as how it is in the American zeitgeist right now.  So it could be an ectopic pregnancy, a pregnancy that "is not compatible with life" due to abnormalities, or a pregnancy that has ended on its own but remains in the mother. Sometimes the body will not expel a failed pregnancy, and it can cause infection and death...hence the term therapeutic.  But when you want to be pregnant so badly, it doesn't feel like therapy...trust me, I know. But I digress...

She went through countless tortures as a result of the accident (in addition to what I just mentioned) - there were 20 some surgeries, corsets, braces, stretchings and other physical "therapy".  

Then there was her marriage to Diego.  Diego Rivera was a famous painter in his own right. When they met, it was art that introduced them to each other.  In case you were wondering like I was, yes, Diego was twenty years older than she was. She was 21 when they married, he was 41.   And like so many other marriages, theirs was riddled with infidelity.   In fact, he cheated on Frida with her sister! This led to their divorce, but they remarried the next year, go figure.   They fought constantly and they both cheated on each other continuously.  But the love affairs of Frida are not something that her history usually covers, so I will!

She had a number of affairs with famous people of both genders. These include the Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky, the American modernist painter, Georgia O'Keeffe, and the entertainer (and spy - see Episode #40!) Josephine Baker.  Then there was photographer Nickolas Muray, actress Dolores del Rio, sculptor Isamu Noguchi (clearly she loves the artist types!),  and actress Paulette Goddard.  There were unconfirmed rumors of her romantic involvement with photographer Tina Modotti, and singer Chavela Vargas. 

Frida's art is not shy or particularly encoded in regards to its subjects.  Her pain is obvious, as well as the causes of it. In her rebellious honesty, she did more than just express herself, though.  She gave a voice to people in pain.  It is hard for me to really study her art. Maybe it is my empathic nature, or maybe it is that her art is so loaded with pain that it actually seeps into your eyes when you view it. I'm not sure, but she said that without art, she could not have survived.  

Here are some of my favorite quotes from her: 

"There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst."

"Don’t build a wall around your suffering. It may devour you from the inside."

"I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed with this decent and good feeling."

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LISTEN TO THE Hispanic History EPISODE HERE